IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v49y2012icp83-90.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Building synergies between climate change mitigation and energy poverty alleviation

Author

Listed:
  • Ürge-Vorsatz, Diana
  • Tirado Herrero, Sergio

Abstract

Even though energy poverty alleviation and climate change mitigation are inextricably linked policy goals, they have remained as relatively disconnected fields of research inquiry and policy development. Acknowledging this gap, this paper explores the mainstream academic and policy literatures to provide a taxonomy of interactions and identify synergies and trade-offs between them. The most important trade-off identified is the potential increase in energy poverty levels as a result of strong climate change action if the internalisation of the external costs of carbon emissions is not offset by efficiency gains. The most significant synergy was found in deep energy efficiency in buildings. The paper argues that neither of the two problems – deep reductions in GHG emissions by mid-century, and energy poverty eradication – is likely to be solved fully on their own merit, while joining the two policy goals may provide a very solid case for deep efficiency improvements. Thus, the paper calls for a strong integration of these two policy goals (plus other key related benefits like energy security or employment), in order to provide sufficient policy motivation to mobilise a wide-scale implementation of deep energy efficiency standards.

Suggested Citation

  • Ürge-Vorsatz, Diana & Tirado Herrero, Sergio, 2012. "Building synergies between climate change mitigation and energy poverty alleviation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 83-90.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:49:y:2012:i:c:p:83-90
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2011.11.093
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421511009918
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2011.11.093?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Healy, John D. & Clinch, J. Peter, 2004. "Quantifying the severity of fuel poverty, its relationship with poor housing and reasons for non-investment in energy-saving measures in Ireland," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 207-220, January.
    2. Clinch, J. Peter & Healy, John D., 2001. "Cost-benefit analysis of domestic energy efficiency," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 113-124, January.
    3. Rob Dellink & Stéphanie Jamet & Jean Chateau & Romain Duval, 2014. "Towards global carbon pricing: Direct and indirect linking of carbon markets," OECD Journal: Economic Studies, OECD Publishing, vol. 2013(1), pages 209-234.
    4. Markandya Anil & Rübbelke Dirk T.G., 2004. "Ancillary Benefits of Climate Policy / Sekundäre Nutzen der Klimapolitik," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 224(4), pages 488-503, August.
    5. Fatih Birol, 2007. "Energy Economics: A Place for Energy Poverty in the Agenda?," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3), pages 1-6.
    6. A. Greening, Lorna & Greene, David L. & Difiglio, Carmen, 2000. "Energy efficiency and consumption -- the rebound effect -- a survey," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(6-7), pages 389-401, June.
    7. Urge-Vorsatz, Diana & Miladinova, Gergana & Paizs, Laszlo, 2006. "Energy in transition: From the iron curtain to the European Union," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(15), pages 2279-2297, October.
    8. Stefan Buzar, 2007. "When Homes Become Prisons: The Relational Spaces of Postsocialist Energy Poverty," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 39(8), pages 1908-1925, August.
    9. Liddell, Christine & Morris, Chris, 2010. "Fuel poverty and human health: A review of recent evidence," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 2987-2997, June.
    10. Global Energy Assessment Writing Team,, 2012. "Global Energy Assessment," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521182935.
    11. Milne, Geoffrey & Boardman, Brenda, 2000. "Making cold homes warmer: the effect of energy efficiency improvements in low-income homes A report to the Energy Action Grants Agency Charitable Trust," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(6-7), pages 411-424, June.
    12. Susan Scott, 1996. "Social Welfare Fuel Allowances...To Heat the Sky?," Papers WP074, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    13. Urge-Vorsatz, Diana & Novikova, Aleksandra, 2008. "Potentials and costs of carbon dioxide mitigation in the world's buildings," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 642-661, February.
    14. Shonali Pachauri & Daniel Spreng, 2003. "Energy use and energy access in relation to poverty," CEPE Working paper series 03-25, CEPE Center for Energy Policy and Economics, ETH Zurich.
    15. Global Energy Assessment Writing Team,, 2012. "Global Energy Assessment," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107005198.
    16. Robert Pollin & James Heintz & Heidi Garrett-Peltier, 2009. "The Economic Benefits of Investing in Clean Energy: How the Economic Stimulus Program and New Legislation Can Boost U.S. Economic Growth and Employment," Published Studies economic_benefits, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
    17. Sagar, Ambuj D., 2005. "Alleviating energy poverty for the world's poor," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(11), pages 1367-1372, July.
    18. Li, Jun, 2008. "Towards a low-carbon future in China's building sector--A review of energy and climate models forecast," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(5), pages 1736-1747, May.
    19. Healy, John D. & Clinch, J. Peter, 2002. "Fuel poverty, thermal comfort and occupancy: results of a national household-survey in Ireland," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 73(3-4), pages 329-343, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ürge-Vorsatz, Diana & Kelemen, Agnes & Tirado-Herrero, Sergio & Thomas, Stefan & Thema, Johannes & Mzavanadze, Nora & Hauptstock, Dorothea & Suerkemper, Felix & Teubler, Jens & Gupta, Mukesh & Chatter, 2016. "Measuring multiple impacts of low-carbon energy options in a green economy context," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 1409-1426.
    2. Li, Kang & Lloyd, Bob & Liang, Xiao-Jie & Wei, Yi-Ming, 2014. "Energy poor or fuel poor: What are the differences?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 476-481.
    3. Stefan Bouzarovski, 2014. "Energy poverty in the European Union: landscapes of vulnerability," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 3(3), pages 276-289, May.
    4. Stefan Bouzarovski & Saska Petrova & Sergio Tirado-Herrero, 2014. "From Fuel Poverty to Energy Vulnerability: The Importance of Services, Needs and Practices," SPRU Working Paper Series 2014-25, SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School.
    5. Saska Petrova & Michael Gentile & Ilkka Henrik Mäkinen & Stefan Bouzarovski, 2013. "Perceptions of Thermal Comfort and Housing Quality: Exploring the Microgeographies of Energy Poverty in Stakhanov, Ukraine," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 45(5), pages 1240-1257, May.
    6. Burholt, Vanessa & Windle, Gill, 2006. "Keeping warm? Self-reported housing and home energy efficiency factors impacting on older people heating homes in North Wales," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(10), pages 1198-1208, July.
    7. Recep Ulucak & Ramazan Sari & Seyfettin Erdogan & Rui Alexandre Castanho, 2021. "Bibliometric Literature Analysis of a Multi-Dimensional Sustainable Development Issue: Energy Poverty," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-21, August.
    8. Charlier, Dorothée & Legendre, Bérangère, 2021. "Fuel poverty in industrialized countries: Definition, measures and policy implications a review," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 236(C).
    9. Nicola Cantore & Patrick Nussbaumer & Max Wei & Daniel Kammen, 2016. "Promoting Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency in Africa: A Framework to Evaluate Employment Generation and Cost-effectiveness," Working Papers 2016.45, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    10. Hamza, Neveen & Gilroy, Rose, 2011. "The challenge to UK energy policy: An ageing population perspective on energy saving measures and consumption," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 782-789, February.
    11. Aurélie Méjean & Franck Lecocq & Yacob Mulugetta, 2015. "Equity, burden sharing and development pathways: reframing international climate negotiations," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 15(4), pages 387-402, November.
    12. Kahouli, Sondès & Okushima, Shinichiro, 2021. "Regional energy poverty reevaluated: A direct measurement approach applied to France and Japan," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    13. Toroghi, Shahaboddin H. & Oliver, Matthew E., 2019. "Framework for estimation of the direct rebound effect for residential photovoltaic systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 251(C), pages 1-1.
    14. Banerjee, Rajabrata & Mishra, Vinod & Maruta, Admasu Asfaw, 2021. "Energy poverty, health and education outcomes: Evidence from the developing world," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    15. Esperanza Vera‐Toscano & Heather Brown, 2022. "Empirical Evidence on the Incidence and Persistence of Energy Poverty in Australia," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 55(4), pages 515-529, December.
    16. Tirado Herrero, Sergio & Ürge-Vorsatz, Diana, 2012. "Trapped in the heat: A post-communist type of fuel poverty," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 60-68.
    17. Callan, Tim & Lyons, Sean & Scott, Susan & Tol, Richard S.J. & Verde, Stefano, 2009. "The distributional implications of a carbon tax in Ireland," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 407-412, February.
    18. Mundaca, Luis & Markandya, Anil, 2016. "Assessing regional progress towards a ‘Green Energy Economy’," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 1372-1394.
    19. Mundaca, Luis & Luth Richter, Jessika, 2015. "Assessing ‘green energy economy’ stimulus packages: Evidence from the U.S. programs targeting renewable energy," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 1174-1186.
    20. Huang, Lizhen & Bohne, Rolf André & Lohne, Jardar, 2015. "Shelter and residential building energy consumption within the 450 ppm CO2eq constraints in different climate zones," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 90(P1), pages 965-979.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:49:y:2012:i:c:p:83-90. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.